


The Path To The Heart Is Made Of Mushrooms

by AnActualFrog



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alchemist Sokka, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Healer Katara, M/M, Magical Adventure, dumb gays, i need to stop talking about the mushrooms, if you like fungi you will like this, like they are huge, mushroom, runist toph, seriously though these mushrooms are giant, sokka is a weary parent of the group, the gaang goes on an adventure, very large mushrooms, witch is not a gendered term jkr is wrong, witch zuko, wizard aang, zukka - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:33:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28372443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnActualFrog/pseuds/AnActualFrog
Summary: the gaang (comprising of toph, katara, sokka, and aang) are adventurers, travelling the lands and going where they please.sokka finds a mushroom.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Suki/Yue (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	The Path To The Heart Is Made Of Mushrooms

“Guys," Sokka calls behind himself. "You should come see this." By _this,_ he's referring to the giant glowing mushroom smack-dab in the middle of what had seemed like a perfectly normal forest. Evidently, it _wasn't_ a normal forest, because normal forests don't have giant glowy mushrooms the size of a tree.

"What's up, Sokka?" Aang shouts, a ways back where Sokka had left them to treat Toph’s burns. 

"Come to where I am. There's a big-- well, maybe it's better if you see it first." Sokka's almost at a loss for words, craning his neck to see the bottom of the cap. 

"We'll come when Katara finishes salving Toph's burns!" 

Sokka spends the time alone circling the base of the mushroom, hugging it to see if his arms touched (they didn't. His fingers came just shy of each other.), and attempting to climb it, which didn't get him far.

When Aang, Katara, and Toph finally appear from between the trees, Sokka's sitting against the base of the mushroom, walking stick propped up next to him as he’s scribbling down notes about the mushroom in his journal. Aang lets out a shout, running up to it and around it in a broad circle. Katara's guiding Toph, and when the two are next to Sokka, Katara tells her to sit, giving her a warning about Sokka being right there.

"So," Aang says, panting as he finishes his lap around the mushroom. 

"So," Katara says, watching Sokka expectantly .

"So _what?_ I can't see anything! And my burns itch. What's going on!" Toph demands crankily. 

"Giant mushroom," Sokka answers sagely, nodding his head. Aang nods along, leaning over to read Sokka's journal. How he can read Sokka's chicken-scratch handwriting upside-down has always been a mystery. Aang looks up after a couple seconds, testing Sokka's observations himself, wrapping his arms around the base and attempting to climb it. 

"Your burns wouldn't itch if you hadn't burned yourself in the first place, Toph,” Katara reminds her.

"Ugh, you already lectured me about it earlier. Somebody tell me about the giant mushroom." 

"Well, uh, it's kinda blue--" Aang is immediately interrupted by Toph. 

"I don't know what blue is!"

"Sorry. It's... about as tall as a tree, and it's glowing. Maybe magic?"

"Of course it's magic. Where else are you going to get a mushroom that big?" Katara asks, frowning. They’re both eyeing the mushroom again. 

"Everyone-- just-- shut up for a second, please," Sokka requests, waving a hand in the air. "I'm trying to figure out what this thing is doing in the middle of a regular forest."

The group goes quiet, Aang walking around and poking the mushroom in various places, as Katara goes through her bag and sorts it, mumbling to herself. Toph digs in her ear, frowning deeply as she itches it with her pointer finger. Sokka sits deep in thought, jaw set as he stares into the forest. 

Sokka blinks out of his thoughts. 

"I need to get on top of this thing. Any chance you could use one of your spells and give me a boost, Aang?" 

"Uh, yeah, one sec," Aang says, pulling the strap of his shoulder bag around so it swings to the front. "What kind of boost are you looking for?" 

"Climbing, big puff of air, speed, big jump. Anything really, as long as I can get up there fast enough." 

Aang perks up. "I can make you jump real high!" He pulls out a leather-bound book, the one with vials strapped to the front. Rolling one filled with a red liquid between his fingers, Aang flips through the book before stopping in the middle. He pours a droplet of liquid on each of Sokka’s shoes, whispering aloud the incantation while he runs his finger along the page. 

Sokka learned long ago not to ask what he's doing, it turns into a long-winded explanation and eventually the properties of the ingredients and then even into the history of the spell itself. 

"Be careful, Sokka. I'm a healer, not a necromancer," Katara warns, her tone stern. 

"Don't worry. I'll be alright," Sokka promises. “Probably."

Aang mumbles one last thing under his breath, and then straightens, pushing his bag so it rests on his side. "Got it! Just, uh, jump. It only lasts a couple minutes, so be quick!" Sokka gets to his feet carefully, taking quick steps until he reaches the edge of the shadow the mushroom cap makes. 

"Careful, Boomie! I don't want you dying because you tried to jump up a mushroom." 

"Pshhh. I’ve done stupider things," Sokka scoffs, but he eyes the top nervously. Hopefully Aang had done the spellwork right. He takes a deep breath, prepares himself, and jumps.

What Sokka had been expecting the spell to do was give his jump more power, sending him further up so he could grab the edge and pull himself up. What he had not been expecting was to jump, and have the air practically fling him up, limbs flailing and an alarmed shout.

The blue top of the mushroom is close, close, and _oh fuck, he's going to miss it._ He flips, righting himself so he’s not spinning clumsily through the air. The mushroom is hurtling closer, and he can hear a shout from Aang. His mind races for the right solution, quickly coming to the realization that this is going to hurt either way. 

Sokka prepares himself, willing himself closer to the edge so that he doesn't splat onto the forest floor. His eyes almost shut on instinct, but he forces them open just long enough to gauge the right amount of distance. Exhale all your air, quick quick quick quick quick. Sokka catches the edge of the mushroom with his forearms, sending a rattling feeling up into his skull that leaves his head aching and his arms almost slipping off from the immediate pain of slamming into the cap at full speed. He wheezes, the air knocked out of him, making it a struggle to inhale for a few terrifying moments. He starts to slip and scrambles to pull the knife off his belt to dig in as a grip.

He stabs the knife into the mushroom, digging his other hand’s nails into it, holding on just long enough to get a good grip on the edge. Air is finally making its way back into his lungs, slowing the instinctual panic of _I’m falling I'm falling I’m falling,_ letting him take a second to plan out his options. 

One. Risk pulling the knife in the hopes of stabbing it in further and pulling himself on the ledge. 

Two. Trying to pull himself up with just the one knife, which could end in it breaking and him plummeting to death.

Or three, giving up and trying again with a different method that didn’t include spellwork.

"You okay?" Katara’s voice shouts from down below, which he does not, under any circumstances, look down to, because he's smarter than that. Sometimes. 

"I'm good!" he hollers back. "Just got a bit, uh, rattled!" 

"Don't die!" 

"I won't!" Sokka pauses. "Hopefully!"

"Sokka!" Sokka ignores his sister, deciding to pull himself up with the knife. There was less chance of the knife breaking. Maybe. It wasn’t a great estimate. It's a struggle to pull his entire body weight up on one knife with a handle just barely taller than his palm, but after a few scrabbling moments and flexing muscles, he pulls himself up enough to roll onto the edge of the mushroom. 

It's flat on top, starting dark blue and fading to a purple in the middle. Sokka files it away in his mind to write down. He takes a deep breath, turning to look in the direction they hadn't come from. A line of more flat blue-purple ovals are scattered throughout the forest, in a clear enough line to follow.

"I'm coming down! Toph! Rune!" Sokka shouts, leaning over the side.

"Got it!" Toph bellows, and then Sokka has a few minutes to wait for her to set up. He uses it to memorize the pattern the mushrooms are growing in, left, left, straight forward, right. 

"Ready!" Aang chirps, and Sokka steps to the edge, walking in a circle around it to find the rune. The green shimmer of Toph's rune circle greets him just outside where the shadow from the mushroom ends, and before he jumps, Sokka uses his - now somewhat dulled - knife to carve a large chunk out of the top and drop it to the ground in the direction of the other mushrooms. There is no way he is going to lose direction. He slides his knife back into its sheath and reattaches it to his belt. 

"Coming down!" Sokka shouts, electing to ignore the small tremble in his voice when he says it. 

He runs off the edge of the mushroom, kicking off at the last moment. Hurtling to the ground is never a fun experience, even if you have a rune to catch you, so his stomach is a pit of nerves as he shuts his eyes. 

Something about falling to what would in a normal circumstance be certain death is unnerving. His hurtle to the ground is stopped by his body sinking into what feels like warm, soft fog- if fog was able to hold a person and wasn’t made of water. 

"Finally!" Toph complains, putting her inner wrists together and breaking the rune. Sokka falls the last foot to the ground with a small _oomph._ "Couldn't have done that faster?" Toph asks.

"Not much I can do to speed up my descent to the ground, Tophers," Sokka reminds her, dusting himself off as he shoves up off the ground. "Thanks for catching me, by the way." 

Toph grunts. "It’s not like I can let you die at this point." 

“You're so heartfelt, Toph," Sokka sighs. "Anyways, there's a path of mushrooms like this one that way,” He points in the direction of where he saw the path, “I say we follow it." He walks to the stem of the giant mushroom, grabbing up his pack and scribbling down more notes as he walks to the other side, balancing his journal on his left palm and writing with his right. The others follow, Toph gripping onto Aang's shirt.

Sokka stops at the chunk of blue-purple mushroom he had tossed down earlier, still furious scribbling away in his journal.

“What do you guys think?" 

"You're the leader," Aang shrugs, "I mean, it's not like we have anything else to do today. Besides, I think these mushrooms are intriguing!" 

"I don't care about the mushrooms," Toph grumbles, kicking a groove in the dirt with her bare feet. "I want something to do." 

"Mushrooms are something to do!" Aang points out helpfully. 

Sokka's prodding at the mushroom bit with his finger, crouched down now to investigate it further. Katara sighs.

"As long as we get what we're passing through for, I'm fine with it." A beat of silence as she considers her conditions. "And no dying or jumping onto mushrooms is allowed." 

"Deal!" Sokka crows, looking up from his place on the forest floor. "Surely one of you magic-people can detect magic, can't you? Or is that my job?" Aang looks away sheepishly. Toph yawns.

"Sorry, healing magic doesn't work that way." Katara gives Sokka an apologetic look. The gears in Sokka's brain are already grinding away, thoughts racing a mile a minute.. 

"It's fine, it's fine. Okay, so the plan is, we follow the mushrooms. If in two days there's no end, we leave the forest the way we came. We get Katara's plant whatever--" 

"Echinacea." Katara corrects.

"Yeah, that. When we make camp tonight, I run some experiments on this mush piece and we go from there. Sounds good?" 

"That sounds great. Sokka!" Toph exclaims, mockingly eager, staring off in a different direction. 

"Thanks," Sokka says dryly. "Anybody else?" 

"As long as I get my echinacea," Katara hums, "You are the idea guy, aren't you? I trust you." 

"Me too!" Aang adds.

“Thanks. So, I say it’s time we get going, eh?"

✦ ✧ ✦

"Sokkaaaaaaaaaa." Toph threw her head onto Sokka's shins.

"Tophhhhhhhhhh." Sokka echoes in the same bored deadpan.

"I'm bored." 

"Hi bored, I'm Sokka!" 

"Boo," Toph groans, sitting up, "You're the worst. Bad joke."

"Love you too," Sokka says, focusing on pulling all the sealed vials, bottles, a tiny metal bowl, and the mushroom chunk out of his bag. 

"Go bother your sibling figures.” 

"Maybe I will." Toph crosses her arms. 

"Don't walk straight. Fire," Sokka mumbles absentmindedly, checking worn paper labels. "Just don't die." He sets aside a few vials and bottles, as well as flipping through his journal for a written recipe. 

"How's it goin’, Sokka?" Aang asks, meandering over and plopping down next to Sokka. Sokka does his best not to let out an annoyed huff.

"Haven't started yet." 

"Oh! Sorry." 

"Aaaaaaang."

"Topphhhhhh."

"I'm boreeeddddd." 

"Wanna play guess the thing?" Aang suggests, perking up.

"Yeah." Aang pats Toph's hand, letting her know where he is. She grabs onto it, and he helps her navigate away from the fire towards his bag. They start playing 'guess the thing', in which Aang hands Toph something and she guesses what it is. It had been aptly named. Sokka tunes them out, something he's become very good at in the past few years, and focuses on his journal.

"Okay... so I just do this. And then that... and then that and that," he mumbles to himself. He digs his fingers into the mushroom piece, breaking off a smaller chunk that he can hold in his palm and wrap his fingers around. He then pours a few droplets from one vial into his metal bowl, peering at the journal that he had lain next to his workspace. For now, he was set up on a flat rock they'd come upon, deciding to make camp for the night. The next mushroom was in a clearing a small way away, the third one of the day. Katara was prepping the plant-whatever they had found, pulling it apart methodically and setting pieces aside. 

"Fire," Sokka says to himself. "That's unclear. Should've written it better. Whatever." He crawls over to the fire, setting a small vial in between two rocks surrounding it. He keeps a careful eye on it, snatching it up by the cork when small bubbles start to cling to the sides of the glass. He scoots back to his work, adding a drop of the vial liquid onto the mushroom, and then half into the bowl. 

"Mmm... a miniature wood bird."

"Toph, why would I have a miniature wooden bird?" 

"I don't know! Wizards are weird."

"Runists are weird!"

"No they're not! We're cool." 

"Wizards are cool too."

"Sure." 

Sokka exhales loudly in frustration, blocking them out again. Mumbling under his breath, he follows the next few steps. Add caddmia powder. Let sit. Sokka then pours the contents of the bowl over the mushroom piece. It promptly turns from a light tan with a purple-blue on top to bright red all the way through. "Hm. Witch magic," he whispers, running his finger down the color list.

“Hey!” Sokka calls the other three. “This looks like it’s witch magic.” Katara puts down her plant, while Aang and Toph stop bickering about whatever inane subject they were on now. 

“I didn’t know there were witches in this area,” Aang comments. “There’s no record of them here.”

“There isn't a record of giant mushrooms, either,” Sokka sighs. “And yet here we are.”

“Has to be a pretty powerful witch,” Katara adds. “Not many people have the power to get that many mushrooms to grow. They’re giant, too. This witch must have a real good connection with this forest.” 

Sokka hums in recognition. He’s not really listening at this point, letting Katara and the kids talk about the witch in the area, occasionally nodding his head or adding a ‘mm’ here or there. He’s mostly focused on rinsing out his alchemy bowl and putting the ingredients in their compartment. Tapping the bowl on the edge of the rock to get the droplets out, he sets it so that it’ll dry out overnight, tuning back into the conversation.

“I wonder if we’ll meet the witch. Sokka, can we meet the witch?” Aang asks hopefully, twisting to catch Sokka’s eye. Sokka sighs. He is not going to give in. But Aang makes seal-puppy eyes and his heart just can’t take how sad he looks. 

“I don’t know, Aang. We’re just trying to figure out what these mushrooms are for right now,” Sokka says. “And we’re not even sure if this is a nice witch either.” 

“Aw, give ‘em the benefit of the doubt!” 

“Yeah, boomie, maybe they’re a lovely person,” Toph counters. “You don’t know.” 

“I sure don’t,” Sokka says wearily. He rubs his eyes, standing and settling close to the fire, in the area between Katara and the other two in front of it.

Over the next hour or so until it turns dark, Katara finishes pulling apart her plant, Aang and Toph end up playing another game (slappy hands, where you try and slap the other’s hands as they pull them away. Toph usually wins.), the small clearing filled with giggles from the younger two. Sokka tucks his newly sharpened knife back into its holster. 

“I’m on watch tonight,” he speaks up, clipping the knife to his belt. “No arguments. You three sleep.”

“Wake me up when you get tired,” Katara says, giving Sokka’s wolftail a soft tug. “You need rest too.” 

“I will, I will,” Sokka waves her off. “Set up the sleeping area for me, will ya?” 

“I know. It’s my job.” 

“Thank you, ‘Tara.”

Katara sets off to the younger pair, who are whispering and giggling together.

They look up as Katara approaches, quiet words exchanged between the three. Aang and Toph get up, Toph clinging onto Aang’s arm as Katara grabs a bundle from her bag, propped against the base of a tree.

They chatter idly as Katara strings up three hammocks between trees. One for Aang, one for Toph, and one for herself. Toph’s is the lowest to the forest floor, so she can roll directly onto the ground when she wakes up. The bottom of hers just barely graces the grass as Katara helps her in. 

Aang clambers into his next, and Katara is the last one into her own. Sokka smiles, hearing indistinct bits of sleepy conversation drift through the air. It’s not often the three of them can get along like this. 

✦ ✧ ✦

Sokka spends his night flipping through his journal and scribbling small notes where needed, the gentle lapping sound of fire filling his ears. He stops on the last page, pulling out his pen and adding another thin line. That makes it five hundred and thirty four days. Sokka sighs. _I’m sorry it’s taking so long, Mom. I promise it’ll happen soon._

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thanks for reading, and welcome to the magic au! i used the magic system i have going for my real actual novel, so this is a test of sorts, please bare with me. i also know next to nothing about alchemy, so it's a bit iffy. 
> 
> big thanks to @finwiley for coming up with this idea and beta reading! they also helped come up with the name!! love you binch!!


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